Thermal Performance and Sizing of Moving Bed Heat Exchangers

A novel thermal performance relation is presented for a moving bed heat exchanger (MBHE) and its application is demonstrated via a sample rating calculation. Unlike conventional fluid-fluid heat exchangers, where effectiveness relations are a function of the heat capacity ratio, C, and the number of thermal transfer units, NTU, the MBHE expression also depends on the Biot number, Bi, due to heat conduction in the solids. The effectiveness curve for an MBHE operating under the special condition C = 0 is presented, along with its application to a proposed system for solar central receiver plants [1].